Ramla and the Desert is a shadow puppetry/live animation project that is a haunting, fantastical tale about desert disappearances.

Written and produced by
Nehal El-Hadi, directed by
Mabel Wonnacott, and puppet design and animation by
Heather Piper.

رملة والصحراء
Ramla and the Desert

Currently in development, Ramla and the Desert is a shadow puppetry play/live animation performance written by Nehal El-Hadi. Ramla originated during the 2024 Puppetry eXploratory Laboratory offered by the Toronto School of Puppetry, and was presented at the 2024 Fresh Ideas in Puppetry mini-conference and festival. The story emerged from Nehal’s research on human-sand relations, and her study of desert borders and movement across the Sahara. According to the UNHCR, more than double the number of migrants died in the Sahara Desert in 2024 than drowned in attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

In Ramla and the Desert, Ramla wakes up one morning to find her entire family has vanished from their desert encampment, along with their tent and belongings, leaving her behind. After waiting for her family to return, Ramla decides to go looking for them. Determined, she traverses countless miles across a vast and windswept desert landscapes.

Ramla and the Desert is directed by Mabel Wonnacott (Toronto), whose diverse theatrical background spans opera, puppetry, and musical theatre direction. Character design and puppeteering is led by interdisciplinary artist and craftsperson Heather Piper (Pied Piper Puppets, New York City).

We are actively developing Ramla and the Desert as both a live shadow puppetry performance and an animated film. We are currently seeking funding for script expansion, additional workshopping, and character and set design.

Ramla and the Desert has received support from the Ontario Arts Council through the Recommender Grants for Theatre Creators 2024 (recommended by Toronto’s Puppetmongers).

  • Writer & Producer

    Nehal El-Hadi is a writer, researcher, and editor. Trained as an environmental journalist and urban planning scholar, Nehal’s work explores the relationships — with materials, technologies, objects, and spaces/places — that define what it means to be human. She also holds a residency at Toronto's Theatre Centre, where she is developing The Observer Effect, a public space performance that examines the impacts of public-space surveillance.

  • Director

    Mabel Wonnacott is a Tkaronto based opera director, arts educator and puppeteer whose work has been described as “lively and imaginative” and “ingenious”(Opera Ramblings, LudwigVan Toronto). Mabel’s 2024/25 season also includes L'enfant et les sortilèges & L'enfant Prodigues with The Glenn Gould School, The Tender Land with Toronto City Opera, L’amour und Liebe and The Music of Britta Johnson with U of T, The Paper Man (in collaboration with Duo Cichorium), and Ramla and the Dessert, a new work by playright Nehal El-Hadi. In 2024, Mabel directed the world premier of Lysistrata Reimagined, a new opera by Michael Albano and the U of T New Composer’s Collective. In 2023, she was the associate director for Joel Ivany's production of Don Giovanni with The Banff Centre and was the assistant director for Ivany’s production of Don Giovanni with the NAC Orchestra. This summer Mabel was the assistant director for the CCOC’s production of The Hobbit, and Toronto City Opera’s production of Carmen.  She holds a diploma in Operatic Stage Directing from the University of Toronto where she was the assistant director for their 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons. Mabel also holds a Masters in Voice from Western University where she was the assistant director for their 2019/2020 and 2020/21 seasons. An avid believer in opera as a vehicle for human connection and social change, Mabel is also the Ontario Provincial coordinator for Opera InReach.

  • Designer & Puppeteer

    Heather Piper is an interdisciplinary artist located in Brooklyn, NY with work ranging from fine art painting to multimedia puppetry performance. She strives to create thoughtful new mythologies with moments of levity inspired by folklore, magic and play. The artist’s journey with puppetry began at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied writing and animation. In 2013 Heather moved to NYC to intern for the Henson Creature shop, and went on to work as a freelance fabricator and Local 829 scenic artist for commercials, television, theater, and movies. Heather’s art practice consists of object making, textile experiments, costume, mask making, and fine art painting. She found puppetry to be one of the modes of expression that encapsulated most of her interests.

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